Speech
by Martin Cullen, TD, Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism on
the launch of the Irish Society for Archives publication: Irish
Archives, Winter 2008 in Dublin City Library and Archives on
2 December 2008

The
speech was delivered by Dr Kenneth Milne in the abence of the
Minister who was unavoidably detained.

"All
members if the Irish Society for Archives, Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am
delighted to be here in Dublin City Library and Archives this
evening, and I am grateful to Dr Raymond Refaussé,
Chairman of the Irish Society for Archives, for extending an
invitation to me to launch the 2008 edition of Irish Archives
which celebrates Irish medical history. It gives me great
pleasure to welcome the many medical professionals in particular
that have taken the time to join us here for this occasion.

In the
past it had been noted by academics that no proper forum existed
for the discussion of archival matters in Ireland. This
situation was rectified in December 1970, with the
establishement of the Irish Society for Archives. The Society
held its inaugural meeting in the Physics Theatre, UCD,
Earlsfort Terrace and those present as many of you here will
know, elected Professor Robert Dudley Edawurds as its first
chair. The society commenced publishing the Irish Archives
Bulletin in 1971. This publication later grew into Irish
Archives in 1989, which remains Ireland's only dedicated
archives journal.

The Irish
Society for Arhcives exists to enable archivists, and archive
users, to come togehter and discuss matters of mutual concern
and interest. It promotes the importnat place of archives in
Irish Society. It publishes Irish Archives annually, a
twice-annual newsletter every September and March, and organises
lectures on topices of interest and concern to archivists, the
users of archives and the wider public. It is important to
remember that any document on which records are kept, or
evidence can be found, can be considered archival. Archives are
not the dry words of times past, but are the record of our
history.

The Winter
2008 edition of the Irish Archives, launched here tonight, deals
largely with medical records. The articles highlight the broad
spectrum of archival material available to historians of medical
history in Irish archives and librarires. As the Minister for
Arts, I was intriqued to note that one article is entitled
"Medical and Health related films held by the Irish Film
Archive", written by Kasandra O'Connell.

Time and
time again, historians of medicine have informed us that medical
science has grown in prestige through the advance of medical
knowledge arising out of bacteriological and laboratory
discoveries in the late nineteenth century. These advances were
never undisputed and even to day there remain some doubting
Thomas's. Many of you will know of George Santayana's quote in The
Life of Reason--"Those who cannot remember the past are
condemned to repeat it" and the medical archives provide
the means for medical practitioners to recall medicine's
historic past.

The
twentieth century has seen further growth in prestige for
medical science accompanied by greater interest in holistic and
counter-medicine/

Nevertheless,
the authority of modern medicine is not only represented by
scientists, however, but also by medical practitioners, and by
professional physicians, and their story is to be found in the
Irish medical records.

This
latest edition of Irish Archives will inform as to the
medical records available to reseachers and to those with a
passing interest in this subject. It will further promote the
place of archives in our society. I wish to contratulate and to
extend my thanks to all the contributors to this edition of Irish
Archives--especially to Mary O'Doherty of the Royal College
of Surgeons in Ireland and to Robert Mills of the Royal College
of Physicians in Ireland.

Before I
finish, I think it is appropriate to say that I note and respect
the views of the socieyt of the proposed merger of the National
Archives and the Irish Manuscripts Commission, into the National
Library of Ireland. This proposal comes about from the
examination by my Department of the administrative coses and
structures of thses bodies against the backdrop of the 2009
estimates. In the case of the National Archives of IReland, the
legislation underpinning that institution has been undergoing
analysis for some time. This analysis has been undertaken with a
view to updating both the functions of the National Archives and
indeed the magaement structures surrounding the Archives. I am
also obliged to ensure that our national cultural institutions
function through, and are supported by, administrative and other
structures that are efficeinet and effective. My purpose is to
make thses bodies stronger, not weaker, through amalgamation. My
aim is to place the National Archives at the heart of our
heritage and cultural infrastructure.

Finally, I
wish to congratulate the Irish Society for Archives on the
publication of the Winter 2008 edition of Irish Archives,
and for providing an appropriate forum in which professional
archivists and archive users may discuss matters of mutual
concern. I also wish to thank Dublin City Library and Archives
for providing this magnificent venue for this launch.

It gives
me great pleasure now, ladies and gentelment, to oficially
launch the Winter 2008 edition of Irish Archives.

Thank
you."

October

Letters and
comment in the Irish Times re proposed merger of the National
Archives, the National Library and the Irish Manuscripts
Commission

Letter
from ISA to the Irish Times re proposed merger of the National
Archives, the National Library and the Irish Manuscripts
Commission24 October 2008

Madam, -
The Irish Society for Archives is glad to support Prof Donnchadh
Ó Corráin's objections to the proposed merger of the National
Library, the National Archives and the Irish Manuscripts
Commission (October 20th). Such a merger could achieve no
significant economies since all three bodies are already
under-resourced - especially the National Archives, which has
been so seriously neglected that it is barely able to discharge
its statutory responsibilities.

Moreover,
the functions of the National Library and the National Archives
are fundamentally different and the failure of the Department of
Arts, Sport and Tourism, which is charged with responsibility
for these institutions, to understand this is profoundly
worrying.

The
national archives are not financial assets but form part of the
cultural infrastructure of this country. They do not belong to
the civil service or to the government of the day, but to the
people of Ireland and by extension to the Irish diaspora
worldwide. It is our responsibility to transmit these national
treasures intact to the next generation.

In good
times, this means investment in buildings, staff and public
service; in bad times, it means consolidating such gains as have
been effected and preserving a public service. As a nation, we
have already destroyed the national archives once, resulting in
the acute cultural impoverishment of our own people and of the
many visitors who come to Ireland in search of their identity.

Every
single day an Irish archivist has to utter the dreadful words:
"I'm sorry, these records were blown up when the Public
Record Office of Ireland was destroyed during the Civil War in
1922." The National Archives Act 1986 was designed to save
the collections which remained, and it is instructive to note
that it was passed, and a new building provided, at the height
of the last recession.

We urge
careful reconsideration of the proposals to merge these
institutions in the pursuit of an illusory short-term gain. We
urge the adoption of a longer-term perspective which recognises
the unique place of the National Archives in the cultural life
of the nation. - Yours, etc,

'Current
funding for the National Cultural Institutions is higher than
the 2007 levels. Cuts in the day-to-day allocations on 2008 are
marginal and a full programme of events and exhibitions is
scheduled for 2009.

The
Minister said that all of the cultural institutions would find
2009 challenging. However he said that the, “reductions
applied had to be put in perspective against the funding gains
made by these institutions over the last decade.”

The
Minister said that it was intended that the National Library of
Ireland, the National Archives and the Manuscripts Commission
would be amalgamated, as would the National Gallery of Ireland,
the Irish Museum of Modern Art and the Crawford Gallery.Culture Ireland would continue to operate as it had done
for its three years in existence, as a division of the
Department of Arts, Sport and Tourism, with its own Board of
Directors. The Minister is confident that the fusion of these
organisations will lead to “economies of scale and costs and
an enhancement of what they have on offer for the tourist, user
and student.” The Minister said that legislation will be
brought forward to effect these amalgamations and the
governance, management, employment and administrative
arrangements to realise them would be put in place as soon as it
is feasible.'

2009
Budget statement re proposed merger of the
National Archives, the National Library and the Irish
Manuscripts Commission

ANNEX
D

Rationalisation
of State Agencies

26.
Merge the National Archives and the Irish Manuscripts Commission
into the National Library.

Due to a
vacancy in the position of editor the Spring 2008 edition
of the Irish Society for Archives newsletter was not
issued. However the position of editor has now been filled by Ellen
Murphy.

We would
now like to issue a call for articles for the Autumn edition. We
would welcome articles relating to exhibitions, conferences,
current research, developments in archive services, lectures,
publications etc and other matters of concern to those
interested in Irish archives. Items for inclusion in the Autumn
Newsletter should be sent to:

At
a recent auction of books, maps and manuscripts in Bonhams sale
rooms in London, St
Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin, was successful in securing an
important manuscript map of part of the lands of the vicars
choral of St Patrick’s in the eighteenth century. The records
of the vicars choral have not survived and so this is an
unexpected find.

The
map, which is dated 23 October 1714, is a survey of a lot of
ground, roughly in the vicinity of the present Harold’s Cross
park. It includes drawings ofMrs Carr’s Mill and the Way Mills of Harold’s Cross.
It is the work of the eminent Dublin surveyor, Gabriel Stokes,
and it is believed to be his earliest signed map. Writing in Plantation acres. An historical study of the Irish land surveyor and his maps,
Professor John Andrews, the doyen of Irish cartographic
historians, had dated Stokes’ earliest signed map to 1716.

Gabriel
Stokes was born in 1682 and attended the
King’s Hospital after which he was apprenticed to Joseph
Moland who became Dublin City Surveyor in 1706. He drew maps for
both the Dublin cathedrals, Trinity College, and the Erasmus
Smith schools and was Deputy Surveyor General of Ireland,
1748-52.

This
new find will join the other archives of St Patrick’s
Cathedral which are in the Representative Church Body Library,
Dublin.

May

Database
of Church of Ireland stained glass launched

Gloine,
the database of
stained glass in theChurch of Ireland created by
Dr David Lawrence, was launched by Dr Nicola Gordon Bowe in a
special event hosted at the Irish
Architectural Archive in Dublinon 28 April
2008.

The
database, which has been praised for the wonderful quality of
the images as well as for the extensive scholarship and research
on which it is based, is one of the outputs of the first project
in the world to survey the stained glass heritage of a religious
organisation.

The
survey, which has been funded by the Heritage
Council and the
Representative Church Body,covers 1357 windows in 291 churches in six dioceses, with
2650 detailed pictures of the windows themselves and
422 photographs of the buildings.
Six dioceses are yet to be surveyed.

The database may be searched by the name of an architect, by
studio or artist name, by location, date, religious iconography,
by architectural description and even by size, shape and
architectural location of the windows.

The
database already represents the most extensive survey of Irish
stained glass, and those interested in the history of the
subject will find a great deal to interest them in the
identification of Irish studios, designers and artists that were
previously poorly documented or little known.

Dr Lawrence is a giant in this field,
internationally recognised for his expertise in the history of stained glass, and this survey has vastly
extended our knowledge of the heritage of which we are custodians. In addition, he
is an acknowledged expert in the conservation and restoration of old glass, and his
reports, which have been produced on a diocese by diocese basis
are full of useful advice on this subject.

In
August 1987, Professor Craig Harline, Brigham Young University
and Dr Eddy Put discovered the sole surviving volume of the day
book of Matthias Hovius, Archbishop of Mechelen/Malines
(1596-1620) in a Belgian archive. In 2000, they published
together 'A Bishop's Tale'--an extraordinarily intimate
reconstruction of life in 17th century Flanders at the time of
the foundation of St Anthony’s College, Louvain (Leuven) in
1607.

One
of the most basic and understudied consequences of the
Reformation was the impact of religious conversions upon
families. What were the possible responses when a family member
decided to leave the religion of parent, spouse, or siblings?
The unusually well-documented story of one such confessionally
mixed family offers an opportunity to explore this question both
in depth and breadth, and to ponder its continued manifestations
today-- in matters of religion or otherwise.

Following
Professor Harline's lecture all are welcome to the launch
of Mícheál Ó Cléirigh,
his associates and St Anthony’s College Louvain edited by
Dr Nollaig Ó Muraíle NUI Galway (published by Four Courts
Press)

April

Launch
of The vestry records of theunited
parishes of Finglas, St Margaret’s, Artane and the
Ward, 1657-1758

The
third volume in the Representative Church Body Library’s
Texts and Calendars series was officially launched on
Saturday 5 April in St Canice’s parish church, Finglas
where the Rector of Finglas, Santry and Glasnevin, the
Revd David Oxley, presided. The principal speaker at the
launch was the Dublin City Archivist, Dr Mary Clark.

The
vestry records of theunited
parishes of Finglas, St Margaret’s, Artane and the
Ward,

1657-1758,
edited by Dr Maighréad Ní Mhurchada, an acknowledged expert on
the history of Fingal, is an edition of the vestry minute book
of the Church of Ireland parish of Finglas with an introduction,
appendices and index. The volume contains, as well as the
minutes of the vestry, the accounts of the churchwardens, lists
of the parish cess, and records of baptisms, marriages and
burials for the years 1658-84.

This
book will be of interest to those concerned with the church,
local communities and rural life in the early modern period and,
in particular, to those who are interested in the local history
of north County Dublin. It has been published by Four Courts
Press at €55 and is available through bookshops, as are the
two earlier volumes in the series, The
vestry records of the
parish of St John the
Evangelist, Dublin, 1595-1658 and
The vestry records of the
parishes of St Catherine
and St James, Dublin, 1657-1692
both of which were edited by Professor Raymond Gillespie, NUI
Maynooth.

Major
Networking Opportunity for Records Management Professionals in
Ireland
9 May 2008Belfast

The
Records Management Society cordially invites all Records,
Information and Archive professionals interested in those issues
affecting the profession in Northern Ireland and the Republic of
Ireland to the fifth meeting of the ‘RMS Ireland’ regional
group in Clifton House, Belfast, 9 May 2008.

The
theme of this meeting is ‘Record Management: Rising to the
Challenges’, in recognition of the increasing number of
legislative and technological challenges which records
management practitioners have to tackle in an every increasing
regulatory environment.Failure
to address these challenges properly constitutes a significant
risk, and practitioners from a variety of sectors will share
their experiences and knowledge of putting in place effective
systems and procedures to improve compliance and governance.

RMS
Ireland wishes to acknowledge the generous sponsorship of this
meeting provided by Tribal Groupplc and McConnell Archive
Storage, a subsidiary of the Oasis Group.

The
programme for the meeting is set out below.If you would like to attend please contact Claire
Graham.

RECORDS
MANAGEMENT: RISING TO THE CHALLENGES

09.30 – 10.00Registration
& Coffee

10.00 – 10.15Welcome and Introductions

Robert
Corbett, Chair, RMS Ireland, and
Records Manager, Belfast City Council

Please
note that attendance is limited to 70 attendees.Preference will, therefore, be given to members of the
Records Management Society.Details about joining the Society and its activities are
available here.

In
the interests of the environment, all presentations will be
available after the meeting on the RMS Ireland Group website
only.

Edmund
Burke Display at Trinity
College Library

To
commemorate the 260th anniversary of the graduation
from Trinity College Dublin of the prolific author, politician
and orator Edmund Burke (1729-1797) Trinity College Library is
staging an exhibition focussing on Burke’s student life and
political development.

This
exhibition includes items never before exhibited. Of particular
note is the dagger that Burke hurled onto the floor of the House
of Commons during a dramatic debate in December 1792. Burke had
been on his way to the House to discuss the repercussions of the
French Revolution, when Sir James Bland Burges, under-secretary
at the Foreign Office, called him aside to show him a dagger
that had been sent to a Birmingham knife manufacturer as a
template for a suspiciously large order. This confirmed
Burke’s fear that England was itself teetering on the brink of
revolution, with conspirators poised to take up arms against the
State. Trinity College Library acquired this dagger, with the
generous assistance of the Friends of the Library, in 2007 and
it is displayed alongside a contemporary caricature by the
engraver James Gilray depicting Burke’s dramatic gesture.

Also
included in the exhibition is the record book of the debating
club set up by Burke and his friends whilst students at Trinity
in 1747. This club later became the Historical Society
(popularly known as the ‘the Hist’). It still flourishes and
is celebrated as the oldest student society in the world.

The
exhibition is staged in the Long Room, Trinity College Library,
and will run from 15 April 2008 to 13 July 2008.

The
proceedings of the annual conference, held in Dundee in August
2007, are available online.

TAPE
publishes report on audiovisual research collections and their
preservation

The
TAPE project has issued a publication on audiovisual research
collections by Dietrich Schüller of the Phonogrammarchiv,
Austrian Academy ofSciences.

n
the 20th century, thousands of recordings were made during
academic field work, and numerous interviews and
documentaries were produced in research projects. Some of this
material is now held by archives, but often it is kept in
academic departments ?or even by individual researchers ? as
little known ?hidden collections?: minimally documented,
haphazardly stored under suboptimal conditions, and at serious
risk of being lost altogether. These materials reflect cultural
and linguistic diversity, especially as much of what they
document has by now disappeared. They are primary sources for
oral history studies, and provide insight into the concerns and
methodology of researchers at the time. Therefore they should be
kept accessible for future research projects.

The
report looks at collections of this type and discusses
the particular requirements for access and re-use,
focusing on the potential of digitization for creating
distributed content-based archives.

The
TAPE project, Training
for Audiovisual Preservation in Europe, is supported
by the Culture 2000-programme of the EU.

February

Council
on Library and Information Resources:White Paper Examines Issues of Preserving
CollectionsCreated by Mass Digitization

The
digitization of millions of books under programs such as Google
Book Search and Microsoft Live Search Books is greatly expanding
our ability to search and find information. While much attention
has focused on the unprecedented access these projects afford,
less has focused on the future of the digital content created
through such initiatives. Who will ensure that it is fit for use
and accessible over time, and what steps should be taken now to
improve the usability of these resources into the future?

The paper
describes four large-scale projects--Google Book Search,
Microsoft Live Search Books, Open Content Alliance, and the
Million Book Project--and their digitization strategies. It then
discusses a range of issues affecting the stewardship of the
digital collections they create: selection, quality in content
creation, technical infrastructure, and organizational
infrastructure. The paper also attempts to foresee the likely
impacts of large-scale digitization on book collections. The
author offers a series of recommendations for how participating
libraries and digitizing partners can secure, or improve, a
long-term return on the LSDI investment.

The study
and publication were funded by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Preservation in the Age of Large-Scale Digitization: A White
Paper is available electronically.
Print copies will soon be available for ordering through CLIR's
Web site, for $20 per copy plus shipping and handling.

The Council on Library and Information Resources is an
independent, nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the
management of information for research, teaching, and learning.
CLIR works to expand access to information, however recorded and
preserved, as a public good.

The field of
literary studies has shown a marked interested in the term
"archive" in recent years, with a number of
conferences, monographs, and special issues in the area. This
fascination is often one-sided, with many archivists being
reluctant to engage in the debate. There are many potential
reasons for this reluctance, not least of which is the way in
which literary studies has appropriated (and sometimes even
misunderstood) the role and function of archives. Archive
Fervour / Archive Further is a major interdisciplinary
conference intended to re-invigorate this debate, offering
archivists and literary scholars a forum in which to discuss the
ways in which both fields intersect and to explore the ways in
which mutual co-operation can benefit their future development.
The conference brings together practising archivists willing to
exhibit and/or discuss their collections and methods, archival
theorists, literary and historical researchers, and literary
theorists. This interdisciplinary engagement will be promoted by
a number of keynote speakers:

Professor Terry
Cook (University of Manitoba) teaches
archival studies, following a long career at the
then-National Archives of Canada. He also consults
internationally, and has written extensively on archival
appraisal, the history of archives, and the postmodern
archive.

Jeff Cowton
(The Wordsworth Trust)
is Curator of the prestigious Wordsworth Trust collections,
which received Designated status in 1997 as a result of its
numerous papers on Wordsworth and his contemporaries.

Professor
Carolyn Steedman (University of Warwick)
teaches History and is the author of works such as Dust,
Past Tenses, and Master and Servant. She is
currently an ESRC Research Professor completing a project on
domestic service and modernity, and has research interests
in the construction of self-identity.

Professor
Julian Wolfreys (Loughborough University)
teaches nineteenth- and twentieth-century literature, and
literary theory. He is the author of the Writing London
series and numerous books on Derrida, and is interested in
spectrality, memory, and psychoanalysis.

The issues and
topics to be explored at the conference include:

Understanding
Archives / the "Archive"

Exemplary
Literary Archives & Processes

Interpretative
Practices across the Disciplines

Crossing
Disciplinary Borders

Telling
Stories about or with Archives

Further Information
& Booking Your Place

If you require more
information on the conference, please contact the

conference
organisers.
For
those interested in attending, but who will not be supported
either by an institution or an organisation, or who are
postgraduate students, the organisers are trying to arrange for
a series of bursaries to be made available. If you wish to
attend and feel that this applies to you, please let us know. A
draft programme will be available "here"
when it has been finalised.

This
five-day workshop will provide an intensive grounding in the
theory and practice of audiovisual archiving, enabling curators
to develop strategies to safeguard their collections.The training will be led by a range of expert film, video
and audio curators from across Europe.They will address issues such as the handling and storage
of analogue originals, digitisation and restoration, managing
digital assets and enabling access and reuse.

The
workshop will begin with an overview of curation challenges,
addressing factors such as carrier composition, life expectancy
and obsolescence.The
emphasis though will be placed on practice, using case studies
and workshops to enable delegates to develop solutions for their
specific context.By
the end of the workshop delegates will be able to identify which
of their collections are at most risk of loss, so work can be
prioritised, and will be able to recommend policy changes to
improve the management and dissemination of collections.

Organisation

The
workshop will be run by Humanities Advanced Technology and
Information Institute (HATII) at the University of Glasgow, as a
continuation of the training programme established by the EC
funded Training for Audiovisual Preservation in Europe (TAPE)
project, which was co-ordinated by European Commission on
Preservation and Access (ECPA) and ran between 2004 and 2008.

Course
directors: Sarah Jones, HATII & Richard Wright, BBC Archives

Delegate
information

The
workshop is aimed at curators responsible for audiovisual
collections.As
this is an introductory course it is suited to curators without
specialist audiovisual training.No specific technical expertise is required.The workshop will be conducted in English so delegates
are expected to have a working knowledge of the English language
to be able to participate.

Course
fee: GBP 400

Fee
includes a course pack, refreshments, lunches and a conference
dinner.

Registration
closes on 21 March 2008.Places
are limited so register now to avoid disappointment.

It is
intended that the proceedings of the conference will be
published. Funding to support attendance at the conference is
not available.

This
conference will be relevant to theorists, archivists,
philosophers, historians, literary historical critics and other
discipline specific scholars, with the aim of encouraging debate
and developing a critical understanding of these issues. In
particular, we see this seminar as breaking down barriers
between academic disciplines and challenging the insularity that
sometimes characterises those working with archives.

During the
conference an interdisciplinary PhD programme on Memory, funded
by the Centre for Archive and Information Studies in partnership
with the departments of history and philosophy, at the
University of Dundee will be launched. The inaugural studentship
will be advertised shortly.

The
RSE-funded 'Investigating the Archive' project consists of three
conferences and two workshops. The first conference, 'A
Triangular Traffic', held on November 2/3 2007 addressed the
subject of literature, slavery and the archive. The third
conference which will be held in Summer 2008, will be on the
subject of Visual Culture and the Archive of Migration. The
workshops will serve to sustain the interrogative and
self-reflexive methodological questioning initiated during the
main events. In this manner, it is hoped that scholars with
different methodological outlooks on the archive - and archival
research - can work together in a productive dialogue or
tension.

International
Conference: One more step towards the European Digital Library
31 January & 1 February 2008
Frankfurt am Main, Germany

The
objectives of the conference and the preliminary programme can
be found here.

The
Conference aims to highlight and discuss The European Library's
rolein
building the European digital library and to discuss strategic,
technical and semantic interoperability between the four
cultural heritage domains: museums, archives, audio-visual
archives and libraries.

The
Conference will be opened by Horst Forster, the director of
Content in the Information Society and Media Directorate General
of the European Commission, and the key note speaker Herbert van
de Sompel from the Los Alamos National Laboratory.

The
results and findings of the EDLproject will be presented in the
first session. The focus of the project has been to integrate
the bibliographic catalogues and digital collections of the
national libraries of Belgium, Greece, Iceland, Ireland,
Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Norway, Spain and Sweden into The
European Library. EDLproject is a Targeted Project funded by the
European Commission under the eContentplus Programme and
coordinated by the German National Library.

The
Conference will continue with a session on the EDL Foundation,
its aims, its workplan and how interested associations and
organisations may join.

Further
sessions of the Conference will be dedicated to the creation of
the European Digital Library, and the focus will be on
interoperability - technical, inter-sectoral and semantic. This
part of the Conference is closely interlinked with the EDLnet
programme which has set out to create a European community of
cultural heritage sectors, and produce a first prototype of the
European Digital Library. First results and findings of the
EDLnet working groups will be presented and demonstrated,
inviting discussion and feedback from the audience.